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Collierville First Baptist Church
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Well good evening, good to see you.
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I'm so thankful that you're here and I'm thankful that I'm here. I'm grateful Pastor Chuck was out of town this week for a board meeting and was gonna get in late.
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So I'm grateful that he gave me the opportunity to step in and pinch hit for him tonight. It's always a blessing to teach the Word of God. It's a double blessing when I get to do it in my home church. That means a lot to me. Be opening your Bible to the book of James at the end of your New Testament and we're gonna be considering chapter two of James tonight, verses 14,
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through just about the end of the chapter.
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And if you were here several weeks ago,
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I taught a lesson.
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I've been living in the book of James for the last two months.
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I'm interim pastor of a church down in Mississippi
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and I'm preaching a series of messages from James chapter one and chapter two entitled Measuring Your Maturity.
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I think I mentioned to you that the basis for this is that there are so many false measurements out there in the church. And among evangelical Christians,
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false measurements for our spiritual maturity.
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Maybe false is a little too strong.
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Maybe I should say minor league measurements.
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It's amazing how we often go to the lowest common denominator when we want to quantify our own spiritual measurement.
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For example, church attendance.
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Sometimes we pat ourselves on the back if we go to church. You know there's 16 million Southern Baptists. Oh, I'm sorry, 13 million Southern Baptists. That's not an up to date yesterday or last Sunday statistic, but it's relatively,
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it's a good statistic, 13 million Southern Baptists. On any given Sunday morning,
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6 million of those Southern Baptists will be in a Sunday morning worship service.
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That's not a great percentage, is it?
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Vance Abner I think got it right when he said, "We're many, but we're not much."
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7 million people who claim to know they have a relationship with Jesus,
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who doesn't even show up on Sunday morning. I'm not talking about Wednesday night. I'm not talking about showing up for Sunday school. I'm just talking about out of a scale of 1 to 10, number one requirement.
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Or we measure our maturity by what we don't do.
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I don't smoke, I don't chew, I don't run with folks that do.
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Neither does a fence post.
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If that's all that's in your box,
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you attend church and a few things you don't do. If that's the extent of how you measure your maturity, we've really missed the mark.
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And James was aware of that.
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He was a pastor, James. He pastored First Baptist Church Jerusalem.
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No, I'm not going to say that.
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I don't think it was a Baptist Church. But he pastored the First Church, whatever you want to call it, the First Christian Church.
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And things were going great, and the church was multiplying and growing tremendously fast
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the martyrdom of Stephen and the introduction of persecution into the early church.
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Then a dispersion of the early church took place.
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And James found his church scattered all over the Middle East.
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And so he's writing to his scattered church members.
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They're mostly, probably all of them,
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young Jewish Christians facing intense persecution.
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You've got to remember that James lived in the home with Jesus for 30 years.
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He ate with Him.
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He slept in the same house with Him. He heard everything that Jesus had ever taught. He probably worked in the carpenter shop with Him.
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Yet He went for 30 years unsaved,
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lived in the home with the Son of God.
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He had a kind of faith. He knew this was His brother. He heard His teachings. He knew what He taught, and He had never ever placed His faith in Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God.
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And because of James' close association with Jesus but His lostness, He was concerned that these early Christians might have embraced a fake faith.
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And so He sends them this letter to help them measure their maturity and test their testimony.
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And so He gives them in James chapter 1 and 2 five tests.
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It's a spiritual polygraph.
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And He hooks us up and He gives us these tests. Here's the first test. I'm just going to catalog them for you and then we're going to focus in on one of these tests.
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First of all He gives the test, James 1, 1-12, "How do I react to my trials?"
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And you see that's not first grade stuff, that's senior stuff.
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That's not taking our maturity test to the lowest common denominator but to one of the highest.
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It's how do I react when things don't go my way? Now James tells us in James chapter 1 verse 2 and chapter 1 verse 12 that it is possible for the Christian to walk through trials and have joy in his heart. That's a revolutionary statement.
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Joy, not happiness.
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Happiness depends on what happens to us. Joy is that quality of rest and peace that only God can give. How do we have joy? Because we're not looking at the trial, we're looking through the trial. And on the other side of the trial we see a sovereign God who's working all things together for good to them that love Him. So, how do we react to trials? Number 2, how do I resist temptation? That's chapter 1 verses 13 through verse 18.
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How do I resist temptations? He knew His church members were going to face a lot of trials, persecution, and they were going to face a lot of temptation because some of them had gone into ungodly cities where sin was rampant. And He was afraid that these young believers might not have been able to learn and tap in to the spiritual resources that they needed to overcome temptation.
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And so James just had to remind them that guys, when you get tempted don't blame God because God doesn't and cannot tempt anyone. Have you ever thought about why God can't be tempted?
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Do you know that temptation only happens in an area of dissatisfaction?
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All of our temptations appeal to some measure of dissatisfaction in our life. And we think, and the devil holds up in front of us, something that He makes us think can fill that emptiness or that dissatisfaction.
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And so we're tempted, James said in James 1, 13 through 19, from within, from the lust.
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You know why God can't be tempted?
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Because God is never dissatisfied.
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In His very nature there is nothing lacking in God.
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And if there is nothing lacking in God then nothing can appeal to God. Satan can't offer God anything that might better his life
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because he is totally satisfied in who he is.
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So my problem is not I love sin too much.
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My problem is I love God too little.
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And if my love for God is what it ought to be it crowds out the enemy's access into my life. So, He's giving them this test, how do I resist Him? Here's the third one.
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It begins in verse 19 of chapter 1 and goes to the end of the chapter. Well, now it goes to verse 25. Verses 26 and 7 is another text.
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And here he's saying, "How do I respond to the truth?"
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Now that's a measure of maturity.
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How do I react to trials? How do I resist temptation? How do I respond to the truth?
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In other words when I sit and hear the Word of God talk and the Holy Spirit takes the Word of God and uses the Spirit of God to speak to my heart, how do I respond?
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Do I respond obediently, repentantly, enthusiastically?
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Or do I resist the truth of God? That's a measurement of maturity.
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And the mature church is the church and I believe Cogwell fits this mold. I believe our pastor has led us over these years to be a church that we're not satisfied with anything but the Word of God.
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We're not interested in the latest political news or we're not interested in the latest fad that's going on. But we want to know what thus saith the Lord? What has God said about it?
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So that's a measurement of truth. You're here tonight.
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You're responding to the truth. Listen, to get a bunch of badges to come in a fellowship hall and listen to an hour of teaching the Word of God, do you know how rare that is?
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That's rare.
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Well, I've said all of that to get to what I'm going to say tonight.
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We're coming to the fourth test and here it is.
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Chapter 2, verses 14, the end of the chapter.
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How do I ratify my testimony?
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How do I ratify my testimony?
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The year 2000 I moved to Winter Park, Florida and hadn't been down there very long until I went to visit one of our church members. I got out of the car and I looked in his backyard and there was a bunch of trees there.
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And I saw some big old orange balls on those trees. Now I'm a country boy from northeast Mississippi.
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I don't know that I'd ever seen a real orange tree. I'd seen a few pictures. But I looked at those trees and I said, "I know what those trees are.
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They're orange trees."
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See that tree?
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Probably--hey, how can you recognize that's an orange tree?
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How?
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Let me ask you something. If you took every one of those oranges off that tree, I would probably say there's not five people, Dr. Jerry Horn would be one of them, probably a few more folks that could recognize what that tree is without its fruit.
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How do we know it's an orange tree?
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Because it's got oranges on it.
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What did Jesus say? He said, "By their--" it starts with an "F."
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"By their fruit you shall know them."
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Now, James is going to teach that to us tonight. So, let's begin in James 2, verse 14 and following.
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And by the way, this is the most controversial passage in the book of James, and some would say one of the top five controversial passages in the New Testament.
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The other four would be in the book of Hebrews. But this is by far the most difficult, and it's the one that the enemy has used the most.
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Whole denominations that base their salvation on good works
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appeal to this text to support their theology.
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And if you talk to them about we are saved by faith in Christ, by faith alone in Christ alone, often they will take you to this passage and say, "Oh no, oh no." That's not what the Bible says in the book of James. So, let's read it. James says in verse 14, "What use is it, my brethren?"
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If someone says--now notice my brethren, understand that, he's writing not to un-church people, not to heathen, he's writing to his church. He's writing to professing Christians. What use is it, my brethren, if someone says--he raises an artificial conversation here, I think James is referring to himself. But what if someone says he has faith, but he also has no works? Can that faith save? Now, King James Version, New King James Version just simply says this, "Can faith save?"
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Can faith save? That's a good question, isn't it?
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Can faith save?
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That's a question worthy of delving into. And then he says, "If a brother or sister," again he's talking to Christians, "is without clothing and in need of daily food." In other words, these folks have clothes that are old and they're tattered and they're without the very necessities of life. Now, these are church folks.
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They're not somebody he saw out on the street. These are church folks and he sees them that way. And one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled."
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Now, it's hard to pick this up just from the English, but there's a voice in the Greek language called the middle voice. And the middle voice means the action is taking place from the person that's mentioned. And here's what it means.
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When it says, "Be warmed and filled," here's what the language in the New Testament says, "fill yourself and warm yourself."
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In other words, it's an emphatic way of saying, "Hey, man, you hungry? Go get you some food.
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You need some clothes?
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Go buy you some clothes. Oh, by the way, God bless you. Have a good day."
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And yet, you do not give them what is necessary for their body. What use is that?
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Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead.
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Now, he uses that word "dead" twice in this text. Also at the end, at the very end you see the last word in this text is the word "dead."
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It's dead being by itself. In other words, faith by itself. But someone may well say, "You have faith and I have works.
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Show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works.
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You believe that God is one?
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You too well."
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Pat yourself on the back.
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The demons also believe and shudder.
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But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fella, that faith without works is useless?
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Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son? Now, let me get you to circle a word there.
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Was Abraham our father not justified by works when?
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If you have your Bible, I would encourage you to circle that word "when" because that's an extremely important word in this text. When did he do it? When was he justified by works?
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When he offered up Isaac his son on the altar.
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You see that faith was working with his works and as a result of the works faith was perfected or brought to maturity.
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And the Scripture was fulfilled which says,
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"And Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." And he was called the friend of God.
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You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone in the same way. Was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
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For just as the body without the Spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
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Now, contrast what we just read.
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Let me give you just one verse from the Apostle Paul, Romans
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320.
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Paul said, "Because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight.
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For through the law comes the knowledge of sin."
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Now, you see, Houston we've got a problem.
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It's an apparent or seeming contradiction.
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But the truth is it's not a contradiction at all.
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Martin Luther who was the man that God used to launch the Protestant Reformation, a great man, a courageous man who nailed the thesis on the wall, broke away from the Catholic Church.
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But you know what he said about the book of James?
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He called it an epistle of straw.
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Martin Luther could not embrace fully the book of James because he believed that James was writing in opposition to Paul. And because Martin Luther had come out of a works religion and had found the light of the Gospel of Grace and he was saved by faith alone and Christ alone. And he looked at this and he couldn't reconcile it in his heart. And so he had just soon, James, not be in the Bible.
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Out of all respect to Dr. Luther, I beg to disagree with
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his conclusion and I'm going to tell you why.
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The major thought in our text is this, real faith will produce real works.
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Not it ought to, not it should, but real faith produces real works. Do you remember when you were a kid, for some of us, that takes a little doing. But we used to sing the song, "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. If you're happy and you know it, stomp your feet. If you're happy and you know it, then your life will surely show it. If you're happy and you know it, say amen."
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I grew up in the Chupolo, Mississippi area and I did some preaching down there in some of the Christian retreats as a younger preacher. And there was a surgeon in Chupolo that gave his testimony one night in the meeting where I was.
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And his testimony was so interesting.
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He said, "The thing that God used to convict me of my
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lostness and my need for Christ was I heard someone say one time, if you were arrested for being a Christian, is there enough evidence to convict you?"
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And that surgeon said, "I began to mull that over in my mind and in my heart and I began to say, you know there's not.
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People that I work with wouldn't know that I'm a Christian. They wouldn't know it by the way I live, the way I talk, by the things I do."
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Now, these verses that I just read strike at the moral and spiritual weakness of the church today.
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I heard Peter Lord, one of my favorite preachers who is in heaven now say that what a man believes he acts upon, everything else is religious talk.
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If somebody yells, "Fire in my house and I believe them, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to get up and get out."
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But if I think they're just kidding, if I think that's not serious, I can't trust that guy, I may just sit there. But when we believe something, we act upon it. Our tendency today is to label people when they make the slightest leaning toward Christ.
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They make the slightest hint of saying anything about Jesus. But can I say to you, not everybody with a honk, if you love Jesus, tag is going to heaven.
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I heard about a lady that was arrested, cops stopped her, dragged her out of her car, put her in handcuffs, took her to the jail.
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Stayed in there about an hour and then finally he came and unlocked the door and said, "Ma'am, I'm so sorry." He said, "I've made a false arrest."
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He said, "I made a bad mistake." But he said, "When I saw on the bumper sticker of your car, First Baptist Church, and I saw that sign, "Honk if you love Jesus," and I saw the way you were acting at that red light, I said, "That car has been stolen."
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What we believe we act upon, I saw a pickup truck one time, I got to tell you these stories because I don't get much chance to tell you. I was driving down the road and I saw a pickup truck.
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And on the back of that pickup truck it had this big sign, "I love my truck." I pulled out to pass him and when I got right by him I saw another sign in the window, said, "Truck for sale." How much did he love his truck?
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Sometimes our mouth can overload us. Now this problem is not new. It's what motivated Pastor James to write this epistle.
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Now let's look at two important concerns. I've got to watch my time here. I'm chasing too many rabbits. That's why I don't give you a manuscript because I've got too many rabbits I want to chase and I don't know which ones I'm going to chase until I get up here. Now there's two major concerns I want you to see, and these are in your notes. The first major concern that's a background for this text is this, does James write to contradict Paul's doctrine of the justification by faith? Now that's why he's blamed with doing. Does he really do it? Listen to what Paul wrote to the Roman believers. "What then shall we say," now this is Romans 4, 1-5, "What then shall we say that Abraham our Father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works," that's what James said, "he has something to boast about but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
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Now to him who works the wages are not counted as grace but debt.
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But to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly his faith is accounted for righteousness."
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Now here Paul clearly says that Abraham was justified by faith where as James states that Abraham was justified by works. Now how do we reconcile this apparent contradiction? Was Paul, was James writing to contradict Paul? I'm going to tell you unequivocally no. And here's why. Let me give you several reasons. Number one, Paul looks at the root of salvation and James looks at the fruit of salvation. See the truth is Paul was just as interested in works as James was. Let me give you an example. This is our Baptist preamble. This is our Baptist statement of faith, Ephesians 2, 8, 9. Now let's look at it. "For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast." And a lot of times we Baptist put a period right there and we don't read the next verse.
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Paul said we are saved by grace through faith. But look at verse 10.
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Verse 10, "For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for," what church?
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"Good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." And again when he wrote Young Preacher Titus this is what he said, and I love Titus 3.5 I quote it a lot when I preach, "Not by works of righteousnesses which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit." That's Titus 3.5. But let's go on three verses later. Titus chapter 3 and verse 8 he says, "This is a faithful saying and these things I want you to affirm constantly that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable on demand." So, Paul looks at the root, James looks at the fruit. Paul looks at how we get saved, James looks at what happens once we are saved. Here's the second thing, second reason that they are not writing in opposition to each other. They are fighting different enemies.
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Paul is fighting the enemy of legalism.
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People who think they can go to heaven by their good works,
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especially in the Jewish connection by keeping the law.
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These people think if I do all the right things their religion is a do, do, do religion. I do this, I do that, I do this, I do that.
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But Christianity is not a do religion.
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Christianity is a done religion.
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The last thing Jesus said on the cross was, what church? It is almost finished.
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The amplified version doesn't even say it that way, does it? What does it say? It is finished.
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So, you see Paul is writing, fighting the enemy of legalism.
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James is fighting the enemy of license, or what is technically called in theological circles, antinomianism, or against the law. The license crowd said, "Well, I've got faith in Jesus. That's all that matters." You know? And they give a nod to God that they've made a profession, but their life has never changed.
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Now, that's the enemy James is writing. It's like some of you are not old enough to remember the invasion of Grenada in the 80's. I do remember that.
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But the army adopted a tactic when they got on the beach in Grenada. It was called the Buddy System. And those men would fight back to back.
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And they would make progress with one soldier looking this way, one soldier looking that way. They were fighting. They weren't facing each other, fighting each other. They were fighting the enemy. That's Paul and James. They're fighting different enemies. Now, they use the same vocabulary, but they use a different dictionary. You know what I'm saying?
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They use the same words, but they attach different meanings to those words. Now, let me give you an example. The word "works." When Paul uses the word "works" and he says, "We're not saved by the works, but we're saved by faith."
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What he means when he uses the word "works" is describing law-keeping as a prerequisite to salvation. He says, "You can't be saved by keeping the law or your works." Now, James uses the same word, but that's not what James means when he says "works." When James uses the word "works," he means acts of love and compassion that flow out of our faith when we're saved. Now, the old reformers used to say it this way, "We're saved by faith alone, but we are not saved by a faith that is alone." In other words, we're saved by faith alone, but that faith that saves us produces good works. Now, let me give a caveat here before I go any further because I know when I teach on this or anybody, there are some folks that--and you may be that way, folks listening, they say, "Oh, no. There he goes." And you struggle. You say, "I'm such a sinner. I'm not preaching perfection tonight. I'm not.
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But I'm just saying there may not be 50 bushels of oranges on that tree, but under God there needs to be at least two or three." You know what I'm saying? If you name the name of Jesus, there needs to be some evidence that your faith is authentic in the sense that it has produced a measure of change in our life. What did Paul say? "If any man be in Christ, he's a what? If any man be in Christ, he's a patched up sinner." No. "If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation." Old things are passed away and all things have become new. Now, Paul and James are answering--here's another reason. Paul and James are answering different questions.
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Paul is answering the question, "How do I get saved?" And he says, "The way you do that is by grace through faith." James is answering the question, "Now that I am saved, how should I live?" So, you see, they're not in opposition to each other. You see, Paul is talking about how to know you are saved.
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James is talking about how to show that you're saved. And there's all the difference in the world. Here's another thing, Paul is writing as an apostle and as an evangelist. He
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writes with the passion of an evangelist to see people saved.
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James is writing with the heart of a pastor and writes with a pastor's heart of concern for his people's genuine faith and their sanctification. Now, here's the clincher. This is proof positive that James is not writing to contradict Paul. You know why? The very first book written in the New Testament most scholars believe was the book of James. Written some 25 or 30 years before Paul ever wrote Romans and Galatians.
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There's absolutely no way. You see, Paul and James are like two farmers who are in different areas. So, they use different methods. One irrigates because of a lack of rain. One prays for rain to stop the flooding. You see, Paul and James are not enemies, they're friends. So, that's the first area of concern that this text addresses. Here's the second area. Can a person be saved by faith alone? That's the question he asked in verse 14. King James asked, "Can faith save?" Your American Standard asked, "Can that faith save?" You see, implied in the language of the New Testament is the definite article "that."
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It's not seen in the King James Version, but probably in your translation you probably have something of an equivalent of that. Can that faith save? Or can such a faith save? You see, James is not asking, "Can faith save?" He's asking, "What kind of faith saves?" And the obvious implication is that there are certain kinds of faith that doesn't save. And so, James is concerned about that. He's not saying, "You can't be saved by faith." In fact, James fully agrees with Paul that the way you're saved is by faith. And after we're saved comes the works. All right, now let's look at four inadequate expressions of faith. Let me hit these real quick. He says, "There are four different kinds of faith that won't save." Number one is what we call a word faith. Look at verse 14, "If a man," I told you to circle this word I think, "If a man says he has faith." Now, you'll notice he's not saying this man has faith. He's saying that he says that he has faith. Every once in a while I like to go to the message which is a paraphrase and see how he deals with this. I don't know, I don't remember if it's in your notes or not, but let's just look at what the message says about these verses. I'm reading from the message. It says, "Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half starved and say, "Good morning friend, be clothed in Christ, be filled with the Holy Spirit and
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walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup." Where does that get you? It is obvious that God talk without God acts is outrageous nonsense. That makes it pretty plain, doesn't it? You see, it's more than saying a creed. There are millions of people across this country and the world that every Sunday morning as a part of their worship service they say these words, "I believe in God the Father, Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth and Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary." You know what that's called? The Apostles Creed. Many people quote the Apostles Creed, and it's great creed. I love it. But how many of you know you can quote it and quote it and quote it, but if that's all you're doing it means nothing. You know what Jesus said to the Pharisees? He said, "They say and do not." I have a quote there by Chitwood. He says, notice the text doesn't say he has faith, only he says he has faith. He says he is a Christian. He says he believes in the one true God. He said he believed in Christ as a Savior but his faith never got beyond his teeth. You see, God's Word always assumes that once we say something that we can give positive evidence that what we say is true. So, He's saying that just saying this Word faith doesn't save you. Jesus said, "Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven." To say He's Lord and not obey Him is three things. It's inadequate, it's incorrect, and it's incomplete. I love what Dr. Crisple used to say. He said,
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"Incomplete faith is like a bridge that ends in the middle of a swollen river." Isn't that a picture? He said, "Incomplete faith is like a great symphony that ends on a sour note." Now, Jesus clearly taught that fruit is the sign of life. I put in
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your notes Matthew 7, 15 through 19. I hope you'll take the time just to read it. He says, "Beware of false prophets who come in sheep's clothing. Inwardly they are wolves." He said, "You'll know them by their fruits." You can't gather grapes from thorn bushes, He says. What He's simply saying is that faith reveals itself in actions. Well, I've learned over these years to be cautious in applauding some of the so-called dramatic conversions, especially like Larry Flint. You remember that? Some of you are old enough to remember when
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the editor of Hustler magazine, the promoter of pornography in America, Larry Flint supposedly was saved. There's only one problem with that. He never stopped producing pornography.
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And James comes up to him and he says to him, "Can that sort of faith save?" And the implied answer is no. Secondly, there's a barren faith. Look at verse 17. He says, "If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you say is to him, go in peace. Be warmed." Warm yourself is literally what he's saying. And be filled. You don't give them what is necessary. What's the use of that? John says the same thing in 1 John chapter 3 verse 16 to 19. He says, "We know love by this that he laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but indeed
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we will know by this that we are of the truth and will assure our hearts before him." Let's just say we're going to Chili's. Brother Chuck, stop preaching. We jumped in the car and we head to Chili's. Or even better, we head to a Mexican restaurant. Amen. Can I get a witness on Mexican restaurant?
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And we get to the Mexican restaurant, we go in, we have a good meal. And we go out, man, our belly's full. We're just so satisfied. And we see somebody out there trying to count their money, trying to check and see if they have enough money to eat. We've got three little kids, they're not dressed well. And we say to them, "Man, left you some food in there. Man, enjoy yourself, have a good meal." It never crosses our mind or heart to sense the need that they may not have enough food to eat. James is saying our faith ought to make us compassionate. Now, I'm just like you are, I've missed opportunities. But I don't want to. I want to be sensitive to the Spirit. But a barren faith. What he's saying is that a barren faith, we just need to be cautious that our faith, if it has no compassion or caring for others, that should be a red flag. And then here's the third one, an intellectual faith. He says, "You believe in one God? Well, bless your heart. You're up to the standard of the devil. For the demons believe and shudder." Now, that refers, "You believe in one God." That refers to the Shema, which is Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 and 5. And an orthodox Jewish family would quote the Shema twice a day. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. And you shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind." And so, the devil is saying, "I'm orthodox. You believe in one God? The devil is orthodox? I'm glad you're as orthodox as the devil." Now, James is speaking facetiously here on purpose. He's trying to get our attention.
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He said, "You believe in one God? The devil does that." You see, orthodoxy is good, but you can believe all the right things in your head and be lost. You can miss heaven by eight inches.
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It's got to get out of here and get into your heart.
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Harold Fickett wrote, "A cold, austere, intellectual faith, void of action, is nothing more than a mental assent to the existence of God. This faith is just one step above atheism. It is long on profession, but short on practice." Wow. Wow.
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Dr. Criswell, my early hero, First Baptist Dallas for 50 years, he's been in heaven now for many years. But Dr. Criswell used to tell about the devil wanting to join First Baptist Dallas. He said, "Imagine the devil walks the aisle one Sunday morning and he says, "I want to join your church." And so, Dr. Criswell says, "We must ask him some questions." Devil, do you believe in the inerrancy of Scripture? Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God? He said, "Absolutely I do." Devil, do you believe in the virgin birth of Jesus? Yes, I do believe it. Do you believe that Jesus was sinless? I reckon I do. I tried my best to get Him to sin. I could never get Him to sin. I believe He's sinless. Do you believe He died on the cross? Sure I do. I was there. I saw Him die. I thought that was the end of it. Well, then I guess you do believe in the resurrection. I sure do. I thought we had Him dead. And there He came third day out of the tomb. So, you believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus? Yes. We're just about ready to vote Him in. But, Devil, I've got one more question I want to ask you. Have you ever repented of your sins and had your life changed by the power of the Holy Spirit? Absolutely not. See, you can be orthodox, but not really know the Lord. And then here's the last one, and I simply call it an emotional faith. I put on your outline three, but then I saw one more before I got through and I had to change. There's four of them. It's an emotional faith. The devils believe and tremble.
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Tremble. In other words, sometimes we can even have a sense or a level of emotions. Jesus gave the parable of the souls, and remember that seed that fell into the hard ground, the birds just picked it up immediately. The second seed fell into shallow soul. Remember that? And it sprung up. And did you ever notice what it says? "And with joy, with joy He received that seed." That's emotions. But then the sun came out, the test of trials, and He failed the test. It was an immediate emotional response that had no root. That's an inadequate. And then He gives two illustrations of saving faith. Real quick, I'm finished up. Number one was a godly patriarch. Verse 21-24 He uses Abraham as His example of saving faith. Now, I ask you to circle the word "when." He says, "Abraham, our father was justified by works when He offered up His son Isaac." Would you put a little arrow in your Bible and put Genesis 22? It may already be cross references. Genesis 22. He offered up His son Isaac in Genesis chapter 22.
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And then let's go on. And as a result of the works, faith was perfected, and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." Write down Genesis 15. Now, I went to high school in Mississippi. I don't know a lot of math. But I do know this. Genesis 15 comes before Genesis 22. Amen. Genesis 15 is when Abraham looked into the stars. God said, "Look at the stars Abraham. You're kinfolk. I'm going to be that numerous." And Abraham said, "God, I believe." And God counted His faith as righteousness. And Abraham was saved in Genesis 15. He staggered not at the promise of God, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what He had promised He was able also to perform. Romans 4 and 25 and 24 and 25. Abraham was saved in Genesis 15. And then 25 years later, Genesis 22, he offered up Isaac, his son. Why? Because he was saved in Genesis 15. His works only authenticated his salvation. His works had nothing to do with his salvation. Well, the second and last illustration. From a godly patriarch we go to a godless prostitute. There couldn't be any greater contrast in the whole Bible. Here's Abraham. He's a Jew. Rahab was a Gentile. Abraham was a man. Rahab was a woman. Abraham was a patriarch. Rahab was a prostitute. Abraham was at the top of the socioeconomic scale. Rahab was at the bottom of it. Yet, James
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says, was not Rahab justified by her works? Well, notice what he says. He says that she sent out the spies. Remember that?
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Now, was that what saved her? No. As soon as the spies got to her house. Do you remember what Joshua 2.11 says? It says, "She confessed her faith like this. She said to the spies," Genesis 2.11, "The Lord your God is He who is God in heaven above and on earth beneath." Now, she was saved before they got there. She had already been hearing about the Israeli God and she said, "That's got to be God." And because she had already been saved, she hid the spies and she sent them on their way safely. In other words, her faith produced works. I was in the Air Force and I was downtown Cozoke in Iowa and the open shops down there, they got all kind of shops. We were shopping for some souvenirs. There were two little boys there. And I could tell one of them was trying his best to get the clerk's attention so his buddy could shoplift. I kept watching him. He was scooting, you know you can tell it. So, I scooted over next to him and I said, I don't know why I said this, but I said, "Son, you go to church anywhere?" Kind of a dumb question right out of the air, you know. To ask a kid, I said, "Son, you go to church anywhere?" He looked at me and with all seriousness he said, "Well, I used to, but my Sunday school class is on vacation." I thought to myself, some of us,
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our faith is on vacation. Some of us don't need a facelift. What do we need? We need a faith lift. Amen? Well, I'm not through, but I'm going to quit. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you know that we're but dust. And Father, I thank you that every bit of righteousness which you demand of us is the righteousness which you provide for us. But you didn't save us and drop us and tell us, grind it out or grit it out. But you saved us and then you gave us your Holy Spirit to empower us
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to do these works that James talks about. So, Lord, we thank you that you have not left us powerless. Or as John said, you have not left us as little orphans, but you've given us your Spirit. Now, Lord, I know I talked about myself and I feel confident most of us in this room are. We know that we have blown it far too many times. But, Lord, I don't want to. And I
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want my faith to be reflected in the way I live, the way I talk,
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and the way I have compassion. God, help us to be more like Jesus day by day. Help us, Lord, to validate our faith. And, Lord, help us to pass the test of ratifying our testimony. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you.